I had the desire to write this post from a long long time but never really had the leisure to write it due to my hectic work profile. Of all the Romans which I have read this is the part I love the most.
Rom 3:25-28: What God foreordained as a reconciliation through faith in his blood to demonstrate righteousness through his forgiveness of previous sins in the forbearance of God, was done to demonstrate his righteousness in the present time (for he himself is just, and justifies the one from faith in Jesus). Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what law? The law of works? No - but through the law of faith. For we reason that a person(anthropos) is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
Valentinian Interpretation of the passage- From Gnostic Paul by Elaine Pagels.
From such passages as these, Valentinian exegetes infer that Paul intends his allegory of "Jews" and "Greeks" to characterize two distinct. The psychics being "under sin" (3:19) are bound to the "law of works". To escape the penalty of death for sins, they do need faith, but theirs is specially faith "in Jesus" (3:26), in the psychic son of the demiurge. Those who repent and believe in him recieve forgiveness, and are required to do "good works". The process of their salvation depends upon their choice and their own authority; it operates according to what Paul calls the "law of works" (3:27)
The pneumatics, on the other hand, are of the elect: they receive redemption according to the "law of faith" - faith not in the psychic Jesus but in the pneumatic Christ. Unlike the works - salvation of the psychics the pneumatic redemption excludes all human effort (and hence all boasting): it depends entirely upon "what God foreordained" (3:25) in election. Paul says of this in 3:28, "we reason that the anthropos (the pneumatic) is justified by faith apart from the works of the law".
Rom 12:3-6: I say, through the grace given to me, to every one among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think wisely, as God has measured to each the measure of faith. For as in one body we have many members, and not all members have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and each of us members of each other, having different gifts of grace (charismata) according to the grace given to us ....
Valentinian Interpretation of the passage- From Gnostic Paul by Elaine Pagels.
The initiated reader might see in 12:3 Paul's instruction to every believer , whether psychic or pneumatic, to evaluate himself and others according to "the measure of grace" given to him, the psychic "not thinking of lofty things, but led by humble things" (12:16) and the pneumatic putting aside any spiritual pride in the recognition that God has given to him "the measure of faith" he possesses. The author of Interpretation of the Gnosis uses Paul's metaphor of the church as the "one body" to remind all "members of the body" that they all mutually participate in it through the "grace and gift" of Christ. He urges each "member" to share his gift(charismata) freely with the others, accepting the diversity of gifts with gratitude, in harmony with all the members.
Rom 14:1-15:1 As for the one weak in faith, welcome him, but not into dispute over opinions. For one believes that he can eat anything, but the weak eats only vegetables. Let the one who eats not despise the one who abstains, and the one who abstains not judge the one who eats, for God has welcomed him, who are you to judge one who belongs to another? One stands or falls before his own Lord .... One man observes certain days; another considers every day the same. Let each be fully persuaded in his own mind. Whoever observes the day observes it to the lord and whoever eats, eats to the Lord, but gives thanks to God... I know .... that nothing is unclean in itself; but if anyone considers it unclean, for him it is unclean .... The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself for what he approves. But the one who doubts is condemned if he eats because it is not from faith. Whatever is not from faith is sin. We who are strong should bear with the weaknesses of the weak....
Valentinian Interpretation of the passage- From Gnostic Paul by Elaine Pagels.
In closing he advices the "strong" to keep their faith a secret "between yourself and God" (14:22), not offending the psychics, so that "together you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ". For he acknowledges to the "Gentiles" whom he praises and blesses that "you yourselves are full of goodness, having been filled with all gnosis, and are fully capable of admonishing others" (15:14). He praises the "grace" through which he has come to preach "the gospel of God" (15:16), the pneumatic gospel, adding that "I know that when I come to you I shall come in the fullness(pleroma) of Christ's blessing (15:29)". Finally, he commends them "to the one Wise God, through Jesus Christ, among the "aions"(16:27).
None of the authors of the Upanishads ever took authorship of their works for they very well knew that there is an Holy Father who stimulate our thoughts and that we are secretly moved by him in all our actions. If we are not even doing any works then where is boasting?
Savithru deva is lord and master of Agnishoma Mandala (how this is equivalent and identical to the pleroma of the Gnostics will be explained in detail in an another post perhaps ) and He is in Samashti Brahmanda (Macrocosm). The same presiding deity (Savithrudeva) rules the microcosm Pindanda. Human beings who are not aware of this imagine that it is they and their own mind and intellect that get things to be done through their ten sense organs. How can subordinates be independent? Imagining that he is independent, the individual attributes his achievement to his own mind and intellect. This amounts to moha(the state of being enamoured) and aham-bhava (Ego-feeling leading to arrogance or conceit). But those few who are capable of deep reflection realize that there should be one (a power) who inspires or activates the mind and intellect further reflection and contemplation leads such individuals to realize that the Inspirer or Activator is Savithrudeva. It is He and He alone who instill power into the intellect. It is the intellect, which is the center and source of all activity, physical, mental, etc.
- MahaBrahmana, Devudu Narasimha Shastry, Sanskrit Scholar
Unfortunately it is the views and beliefs of the psychic Hindus and the psychic Christians which are propagated to be the correct infallible orthodox truths of these religions and Thomas Paine was right in saying that the only thing these religions produce is atheists and fanatics which is quite expected because the views and beliefs of the psychic Hindus and the psychic Christians doesn't really make sense to a 21st century educated scientific minded person so the only option that is left for someone from these two religions is either to show disbelief to their god or twist and compile piles of logical (or to say illogical) inferences from scriptures to make their beliefs seem more rational and more scientific so that they can continue to hold on to their beliefs despite all evidence going against them.
Just like the way Christians still hold on to a 6 day creation event and come up with complex calculations and crazy explanations to order to make the order of genesis compatible with the Big Bang theory and the way the highly educated Hindus and eastern thinkers who continue to come up with complex absolutely stupid theories of combining quantum mechanics with Advaita and Brahman.
Yes, as I studied it deeply I found serious contradictions to this approach of reconciling science and religion without differentiating their epistemology at first and in fact in my early career I wrote an article to my college magazine defending these scientific minded wisdom-less thinkers who thought that Brahman has connections to quantum fields which I wholeheartedly regret it and probably doesn't want to read it any more but those were the days of my ignorance when I was still researching and understanding these various academic fields. Now I am convinced that science and religion are based on a different epistemology just as Eugene Scott said, "There are denominations within Christianity which use that kind of logic, you start with the revealed truth and that governs your reflection upon the empirical world shall we say. It trumps logic, reason and just about everything." Religion is definitely not about how Grand canyon was formed.
I cannot explain more simpler than this by quoting the scriptures from both these religions, this view should have been the real Hinduism and the real Christianity dominating today. I don't know how Julian would have reacted towards Paul had he been exposed to an esoteric side of Christianity rather than an exoteric one. I'm not a pneumatic but I'm not a psychic either, its not my problem if I offend the Hindus and the Christians in the process, its what God has given me.
Paul's mystery religion and the ancient Vedic form of sun-worship defines me completely, my way of thinking, my way of life and everything I did and stood for up to now. I will bear the weaknesses of the weak.
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